Texas Nationalist Movement Will Ask New Legislature for Hearing on Independence Vote

The Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) said Wednesday it will ask the new leadership of both chambers of the 90th Legislature for a public hearing on a bill to let Texans vote on independence, the day after power changed hands in Austin.

“We will also ask the new leadership of both chambers for one thing: a public hearing,” TNM President Daniel Miller said in a statement. The bill TNM will ask lawmakers to pass “sets the vote for November 2027,” the statement said.

Members of the 90th Legislature can begin filing bills on Monday, November 9. The session opens January 12. If the count holds, the statement said, it will open with “a new majority in the House and a new presiding officer in the Senate.” Democratic candidates led in 83 of the 150 Texas House districts in unofficial returns with every precinct counted, according to the Texian Partisan’s Election Desk.

Twice Without a Hearing

The statement laid out what happened to the bill under the last House leadership. In 2021 and 2023, Speaker Dade Phelan sent a bill to let Texans vote on independence to the House State Affairs Committee, chaired first by Chris Paddie and then by Todd Hunter. “Both times it died there without a hearing,” the statement said. The Legislature’s bill records show both bills referred to State Affairs with no hearing held.

Miller said the bill would need votes from both parties. “A bill to put that question to Texans will need members of both parties, and Texans of both parties have already said yes,” he said, citing a 2022 SurveyUSA poll that the statement said found support for Texas peacefully becoming independent among 73 percent of Texas Republicans, 54 percent of Texas Democrats and 53 percent of independents.

The Pledge Held

TNM will ask every member, new and returning, to sign the Texas First Pledge, the statement said. The pledge’s signers came through Tuesday intact. All nine pledge signers who ran for re-election to the Texas House led in the unofficial count with every precinct counted, as the Texian Partisan reported. Brent Money in District 2 had 75.6 percent, Wes Virdell in District 53 had 72.9 percent and AJ Louderback in District 30 had 71.7 percent. Keresa Richardson led in District 61 by 134 votes. Fifteen other House incumbents trailed.

For years, the statement said, some political consultants have told candidates that standing up for the right of Texans to decide is a risk. In the House districts TNM compared county by county, Miller said, signers “ran within a point of their own party’s ticket.”

“The pledge cost them nothing,” he said. “Perhaps the consultants will find a new argument. The old one didn’t survive the night.”

The pledge, published in full at taketexasback.com, begins: “I pledge to place the interests of Texas and Texans before any other nation, state, political entity, organization, or individual.” TNM does not endorse candidates.

Weather in Washington

The statement set the Austin result against Washington’s. “There’s an old saying about Texas weather: if you don’t like it, wait a few minutes,” Miller said. “Washington works the same way, except the hail always lands on Texas.”

The federal debt stood at more than $40.5 trillion on November 2, according to the Treasury. Miller said that if Washington spends the next two years divided, nothing serious will get done about the debt or Social Security. “Texas can’t afford to spend those two years waiting,” he said.

Miller made the longer case in his column, “This Is Our Time,” published Wednesday on the Texian Partisan. TNM says more than 700,000 Texans in all 254 counties have registered their support.

“Party control will keep changing in Austin and in Washington,” Miller said. “The right of Texans to decide their own future won’t.”